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When we talk about things like a to-do list for example. You may have a list of "completed tasks" where "complete" here is an adjective describing the state of the task. Is there a way to speak about the completion as a noun that makes any kind of sense?

For example, I wanted to say that I completed n tasks, but the tasks included things that would not be typical task list material. The only comparables I came up with were "achievements" or "accomplishments" but both seemed a little too over the top for what I was trying to convey and also feel awkward as nouns. For example, "I had 14 accomplishments." doesn't read naturally, but, even if it did, makes the tasks seem far more important or impactful than they were.

So, are there any conversational equivalents for "completion" that make sense as a general noun?

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  • Do you not count atypical tasks among your accomplishments? Shearing the family ewe wouldn't be on the same list as washing dishes, vacuuming the room, and buying paper towels? Because why? Why not one tally of all finished resolutions?
    – Stan
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 20:16
  • @Stan As an alternative, think about it in the singular. You do something and then say, "Hurrah! That's one completion." Do we ever make the action the noun? Or do we just naturally prefer something like, "Hurrah! That's one task completed."
    – mattbryanswan
    Commented Apr 10, 2018 at 21:31
  • mattbryanswan, we don't care at all. Both are acceptable and neither is mandatory. Your Question is at best about personal choice of style and you’re at least moving towards, if not slap bang into literary criticism, which has no place here. If you simply want synonyms, how did your thesaurus or dictionary fail you, please? Rather than any, let alone such a rambling example, could you provide your own suggested conclusion and perhaps some phrases which do or don’t support it?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Apr 22, 2018 at 19:22

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I aspire to getting things done.

I don't know how productive your day was; but, I got 5 things done before noon.

Despite the distractions, I got a few things done.

It's an idiom but maybe it's what you're looking for.

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The term to use when referring to one or more tasks accomplished is down.

That's one down. This would express that one task had been accomplished.
That's one down and two to go. This would imply that of three tasks, you have accomplished one.
They're all down and none to go. Here, the implication is that an unspecified number of tasks had been grasped from the jaws of procrastination. It sounds a bit off; but, you can console yourself that you got a few things done.

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